“I can’t figure out if I thought this was a green tea or I just accidentally hit the green tea button on my kettle this morning. Either way, I ended up steeping it as a green tea based on that...”
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“I haven’t been around Steepster lately, as you may have noticed. The weather turned blisteringly hot seemingly overnight (don’t they have spring here?) and I just cannot cope. ...”
Read full tasting note

From Harney & Sons

Our most popular flavored tea, this is a blend of black teas, three types of cinnamon, orange peel, and sweet cloves. It is remarkably assertive, and that is its most admired quality. This is the same blend as “Hot Cinnamon Spice”, with a different name.

Since 1983 Harney & Sons has been the source for fine teas. We travel the globe to find the best teas and accept only the exceptional. We put our years of experience to work to bring you the best Single-Estate teas, and blends beyond compare.

51 Tasting Notes

Well, well, well! Look what we are craving this morning!!! All I could think of was coming to work and making some hot cinnamon YUM! This tea has Definite Addictive Properties…and this was my last bag! Thank you once again Doulton for introducing me to yet another must-have tea :)

Do any of you know offhand if this one is sold at the Barnes and Noble bookshops? I’d love to pick up a tin, um, immediately!

I can’t figure out if I thought this was a green tea or I just accidentally hit the green tea button on my kettle this morning. Either way, I ended up steeping it as a green tea based on that button pressing error. Oops.

Once I started drinking it I was honestly glad I made the error. Holy cinnamon! That’s about all I could taste because it really wasn’t enough time to steep the black tea, although I might not believe there is black tea underneath all this cinnamon.

There is one more sachet, so I’ll be using it and steeping it like a black tea and seeing how that goes for me. Or maybe I’ll try to get my boyfriend to drink it since it’s cinnamon.

Also I probably should have realized before that Harney sachets are always 12 oz cups so two in a 16 oz travel mug would have been tongue torture if I steeped it right.

As suggested by Cofftea, I’m doing a side-by-side comparison of this tea (also courtesy of Doulton ~ thank you very much!!!) and the NecessiTeas Cinnamon Bear. The parameters are similar – same amount of tea (except that this one is in a tea pyramid as opposed to loose leaf, but I cut open the pyramid so that I could brew it the same as I did the tea from NecessiTeas), same temperature (boiling water) and same steep time (3 minutes). So, really, the only difference here before tasting is the pyramid. The NecessiTeas wins a couple of points for being loose leaf, on the other hand, Harney wins points for having excellent customer service (which is pretty darned important in my book). I added a tea spoon of raw sugar to each cup.

Honestly, I can’t notice any significant difference between the two. If I were to do a blind tasting, I don’t know that I could pick out one over the other. But this one has a higher score on it than the Cinnamon Bear only because well, I’ve never had to wait three weeks for an order from Harney before, and they always send me a free sample with my order.

Yeah, I saw a company sell an artichoke green tea… Chances are that’s almost definitely an Adagio tea. Our tea shop lists the brand right on the tins in the store. Unfortunately not on the packaging when you order it.

I did think that “three types of cinnamon” part was rather unusual to be duplicated in separate blends; thanks for doing the comparison! Now I’m wondering if H&S buy it from someone else or if they are the blender. Either way I’ll probably continue to buy from H&S, considering past good experiences with their tea and service.

I agree with LiberTEAS and from reading the H&S book I would also feel confident in saying that the Hot Cinnamon Spice and the other versions Sunset and Green Hot Cinnamon Spice were all blended by H&S. I had Hot Cinnamon Spice (the black version iced today) and it was excellent. :)

Y’know, for all my love of HCS I don’t think I’ve ever tried it iced O_O SoccerMom, you’re brilliant! And you’re right, the new cinnamon blends are strong evidence that they blend it themselves (which I should have been able to figure out for myself, just wasn’t thinking) which is great news – I like buying close to the source, when possible, and I definitely want to keep buying from H&S!

Yep, Iced. I found myself not able to guzzle it like most iced tea but I savored it slowly. My son stole a sip and said it was too spicy!
I have a huge tin of this so I have to be resourceful or I won’t finish it!

I haven’t been around Steepster lately, as you may have noticed. The weather turned blisteringly hot seemingly overnight (don’t they have spring here?) and I just cannot cope. I’m not as fond of iced tea, so I’ve been drinking less and less tea. My job is keeping me spectacularly busy as well. I hardly have any free time, but I do have more money to my name than ever before (I don’t mean to brag, just simply to tell you how strange it is to buy stuff without feeling guilty). It is burning a hole in my pocket, just itching to be turned into tea leaves and teacups and teapots. I’ve already converted a large portion of my paychecks into books – I now need another shelf.

Thank you Doulton for sending me this tea a while back. It’s stormy and not nearly as hot today – only 74 degrees – so I don’t think I’ll suffer heat exhaustion if I enjoy a cuppa. Hopefully.

The aroma is that of an apple pie baking in the oven. This storm has both my dog and myself on edge, so the first sip felt like sinking into a warm, cinnamon scented bubble bath.

Doulton has made me a liar! This is really hitting the spot, so I’m not going to be able to have just one cuppa today… I made myself another pot and this time took it with milk, just as an experiment.

Either absence (of tea, in my case) really does make the heart grow fonder or this is an exceptional tea. The milk adds a whole new layer. It is now like eating a cinnamon bun but without feeling like one is simultaneously developing type two diabetes. Thank you, Doulton, for helping me to remember what it’s like to take a metaphorical chill pill in the middle of my day.

I was looking for a tin of this tea and James R was selling it as part of his tea sale! thank you! I’m sipping some now and it is even better than I remember it! So sugary and cinnamony! So so good. I can’t even taste the black tea because the other flavors are so strong. I can see orange peels in the teabag but I can’t really taste them. I hope most of the other Harney & Sons teas are this good! I look forward to trying them…

This afternoon is our departmental holiday party (yay!) but that means I have a lot of work to get done this morning before it starts (boo). So I chose a tea I wouldn’t have to think about too much. Bonus points for holiday-ness! I really forgot how sweet this one is. And it’s almost more clove-y than cinnamon-y. I don’t crave spice blends a lot these days, but this one is a really great one for the upcoming winter.

Preparation

My dad got a sample of this at work and generously decided to gift it to me: I actually have H&S’ herbal cinnamon blend but it’s pretty much just for the bf as the combination of rooibos and cinnamon makes me sneeze. I brewed this with milk & sugar—unusual and a little weird for a cinnamon tea, yes, but I wanted it to taste like a cinnamon bun!

I was definitely successful on that endeavor. This is smooth & creamy with a strong cinnamon taste that doesn’t make me sneeze! The clove and orange are nice and mellow in the background, and the black base definitely stands up to the strong flavors. I’m definitely going to pick up a few ounces of this next time I visit the SoHo store (along with about 10 other flavors that are on my list…. thank god they let you buy in 2oz quantities!).

Preparation

I shouldn’t like this, but I do. It’s really cinnamonny and there is some clove in the background. To my taste it’s mostly cinnamon black tea. That isn’t really to my usual tastes, but in this case it’s working for me. Pleasant surprise.

This is my absolute favorite tea. This is the first tea that I bought from Harney and Sons. I’ve been a fan ever since. I’ve always loved cinnamon so this was just amazing! It has a very strong taste of cinnamon, orange, and sweet cloves with Black tea. It has such a great taste. I don’t even add sugar because the tea doesn’t need it.The taste is smooth with just the right amount of spices. The aroma is alluring and the liquor is a light brown. I would definitely recommend it!